Episode 14: Forgotten Memory
After the words “Elda Taluta” made Madlax see a strange vision and cry out, she apparently passed out on the couch. Vanessa wants to look at the computer files, but Madlax wakes up tells her no, she must not look at the words. Though Vanessa asks several times what exactly happened, Madlax doesn’t answer, but only mutters about red shoes. She seems totally out of it, just like Margaret. A bit later, when Vanessa serves them both some tea, Madlax asks why there are guns on the table. Guns are dangerous. Looking slightly disturbed, Vanessa realizes that Madlax has lost her memories. Limelda Jorg receives a phone call telling she no longer needs to find and kill Madlax, because the mercenary has already been taken care of it. Needless to say, Jorg is pissed off, and asks if Madlax is really dead. Carossur Don replies, “Even if she’s alive, she’s no longer the Madlax you knew before.” Lord Kuanjitta is told by a messenger that “The Secondary” has been located, but that Naharu failed her first attempt to confiscate the book. The messenger also tells the older woman that the Secondary’s owner is a young female named Margaret Burton. The name seems to mean something to Kuanjitta. She instructs the messenger to tell Naharu to try again. To herself, Kuanjitta mutters, “So twelve years later is when it all begins to move once again.” Carossur Don meets with Margaret and decides to tell her what he knows about the picture book. Eleanor shows up to listen too. However, all he ends up telling them is that they should get rid of the book, because certain people are out to get it. Also, Don tells Margaret that she is being watched, but he doesn’t know who the spy is either. Margaret is told that, at the very least, she should no longer bring that book to any public places, as it’s very dangerous. That night, Margaret and Eleanor discuss what they heard. Margaret believes it’s true. Eleanor says she will always protect Oujo-sama regardless. Continuing to seem more and more like a little girl, Madlax asks Vanessa to sleep beside her on the couch. While they cuddle, Vanessa is reminded of Margaret, and she tells Madlax more about the girl. Madlax says she would like to dress nicely and go meet Margaret. Vanessa thinks it’s a good idea. She gently strokes Madlax’s hair as she falls asleep. As she watches Margaret’s house, Naharu is surprised to suddenly hear Carossur Don behind her. Holding her at gun point, Don asks the strange girl if she’s interested in the book or in Margaret. He also asks who the hell she is. Of course, Naharu doesn’t answer either question, but with supernatural ability, jumps and lands behind Don. She asks why he didn’t take the book from Maraget, and Carossur replies that he couldn’t, and Naharu should know why. Margaret is a fearsome and mysterious entity. Again, Don points a gun at the strange girl, asking if he might be the one she was supposed to be watching. Naharu leaves without answering, jumping from the roof of the building where they were standing, and vanishing into the night. Like some dementia patient, Madlax goes wandering outside in the streets, in the middle of the night, with only a white nightgown on. She keeps muttering about red shoes and about needing to go somewhere. Limelda Jorg watches her and counts the number of times she could have killed the oblivious girl if she wanted to—it’s at least seven. She’s convinced this isn’t the same Madlax she knew, but Jorg still wants to kill her. Soon Madlax is stopped by Vanessa, who came running to look for her, obviously worried. Then Jorg approaches and points her hand-gun at the two women. Contrary to her usual character, Madlax cowers behind Vanessa and says, “I’m scared.” Vanessa draws a handgun: one of the two left on the table at their home. She’s prepared to fight to protect Madlax. However, the poor woman has never handled a gun before, and is visibly trembling. Limelda Jorg calls Vanessa annoying and a nuisance, and seems ready to shoot her. As she cowers, Madlax recalls the memory of her father walking away, as well as the memory of a book, out of which a page is ripped by the wind. Something in those visions, plus Vanessa's show of bravery, brings Madlax back to her senses. She rams her body again Jorg’s, throwing off the aim of the shot that would have otherwise killed Vanessa. Further, Madlax flips Jorg over with a martial arts technique, and takes her gun. Madlax aims at Limelda Jorg and pulls the trigger, but it’s out of ammo. She lets the magazine fall to the ground, and before replacing it with more ammo, she tells Jorg to run away. “I don’t want to kill people when they don’t understand the situation,” she states. This is the third or fourth time she’s spared Jorg’s life, leading some viewers to think she actually kind of likes her stubborn and beautiful rival. As Jorg flees in her vehicle, Madlax says to the bewildered Vanessa, “Now don’t walk out on me over something like this.” And the two women head back to their home. The next day, Eleanor is walking Margaret to school, as she says she will from now on, just to be safe. On the way, the two young ladies walk right past Naharu, who apparently feels confident she won’t be recognized. But Margaret has a vague memory, which she thought was a dream, of Naharu coming into her room and trying to steal her book. So she tells Naharu not to do that anymore. This alerts Eleanor to the fact that Naharu is the one they need to watch out for, the one who’s after the book. The episode gives us a final insight before closing. As Eleanor walks with Ojou-sama in Nafrece, and Vanessa with the mercenary in Gazth-Sonika, Madlax and Margaret both say the exact same thing: “I want to eat pasta.” Their voices are switched for that one line. This strongly suggests that Margaret and Madlax are actually the same person, and for them to both exist in different forms, something supernatural must be going on. Preview Episode 15 "This is a very normal place. Normality is the presence of truth, and the absence of anything impure. To be false is to be elsewhere." – Laetitia